


Affirming the Consequent *on hiatus*

by Hallie_Blue



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Amab demigirl character, And jean jacques only knows about isabella., Elevator physics, Gen, High school Boyfriends, Isabella and Yuri just want them to get with the program., Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Maple vodka and tramp stamps don't mix, Miscommunication is a thing that happens, Otabek only knows about yuri though, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, So does the Atlantic Ocean, So is Isabella, Someone assumes otabek and yurio are a couple but they are just friends, Tags May Change, Timezones suck, Yuri plisetsky is aromantic, ace/aro character, fake relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-19 08:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9431603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hallie_Blue/pseuds/Hallie_Blue
Summary: “You like him don't you.”The word come from Yuri Plisetsky but they're nothing he hadn't been asked before. However it is the first time it was more a statement than a question. As much as he's tried to hide it, he's always been slightly obvious about his...interest in Jean-Jacques Leroy.OrOtabek and JJ used to date and that's why Otabek won't go to dinner with JJ and Izzy.





	1. Elevator Physics

**Author's Note:**

> A special thanks to Kae (@otakubek) and J-eh J-eh (@jjleroi) on Twitter for helping me build this headcannon far more in depth than we probably should have.

**Affirming the Consequent**

**Chapter 1: Elevator Physics**

 

“You like him don't you.”

 

The word come from Yuri Plisetsky but they're nothing he hadn't been asked before. However it is the first time it was more a statement than a question. As much as he's tried to hide it, he's always been slightly obvious about his...interest in Jean-Jacques Leroy. It was worse (stronger? More intense? Inescapable?) back when he'd been training in Canada, of course. They had even tried their hand at dating, however briefly. It had been a whirlwind romance for them, albeit a secret one. Plausible deniability is the name of the game in professional sports...despite recent actions of Victor Nikiforov and Katsuki Yuuri. Otabek hadn't even realized he liked boys until he met JJ or rather a short while after.

 

“Yes.” Otabek says, “I'm proud too. Glad he did well, in the end. As much as I wanted to make podium...he deserved it more. I will just have to work harder next year.”

 

Yuri Plisetsky looks angry...like that's not the right reaction and expected something else. Something different. A denial of Yuri's accusations most likely….but Beka can't be bothered anymore. He doesn't have the energy for lying, even when lying is the better option. The better choice. The safest possible route to travel. Beka has never cared about the safe route before. Why should he start now?

 

 _Besides,_ Otabek decides, daring himself to take his eyes off the small Russian time bomb and allowing himself a long-denied glance at the object of his not-so-forgotten affections. _Jean Jacques has always been impossible to ignore._

 

Tonight was no exception either. It may be a simple black suit from a distance but Otabek knew better, JJ has always loved the delicate understated detailing of jacquard fabric and he was not surprised the man finally had a suit made out of it.

 

“-Him?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“I _said,”_ Yuri practically growls, “what's so special about an idiot like him?”

 

“Elevator physics.”

 

It's Yuri's turn to be confused, not that Otabek is surprised. It was one of those you had to be there to get the reference type of things. He tells Yuri as much though it does little to placate the tiny Russian.

 

* * *

 

Jean Jacques Leroy and Otabek Altin meet professionally at the rink where they both train in Canada. At the time, Otabek was fifteen and new to the country and everyone wanted to bombard him with constant streams of questions about Russia and Kazakhstan. The only one who gave him space was JJ, who simply offered him a “Hello let's be friends” before going off to practice his skating like he was supposed to. Otabek respected that even if JJ came off as overbearing sometimes, he hadn't tried to overstep Otabek's boundaries.

 

The first time they get to know each other was about a week and a half later. They were in an elevator of all places, going to grab a quick lunch up in the food court that was usually reserved for spectators. Otabek usually went to eat there so the other skaters wouldn't bother him. He had no idea why JJ was there.

 

“Have you ever wondered how an elevator works?” JJ asked,  staring at the ceiling as opposed to the elevators other occupant. It makes Otabek wonder about how much, “It's kind of amazing right? In theory an elevator makes no sense especially rope and basket ones like this one...it's the kind that work on a pulley system. It has to do with Newton's Second Law…”

 

 _Is he really answering his own question on elevator physics?_ Otabek wonders as Jean Jacques Leroy goes on to explain just _how_

Newton's Second Law applies to the function of elevators of all things. He even goes on to explain how the mechanism that dermines weight of load and regulates how much _whatever_ is applied to allow a elevator to move a consistent rate regardless of variance in passengers. Otabek is sure that someday he will tell their kids this was the exact moment he first fell in love.

 

“Oh” they say it in perfect synchronization. Only as Jean Jacques says, “Sorry, I probably just bored you to death” Otabek practically shouts “Men seni jaqsı köremin. mağan turmısqa şıq.”

 

The only thing keeping Otabek's embarrassment from actually killing him is that he had said it in Kazakh and JJ was completely oblivious to the fact Otabek had just asked the other teen to marry him.

 

“ I don't know what that means, sorry, could you say that again in English? Or French? But I guess English is probably more likely, right?” JJ is blushing as the elevator opens and they begin heading towards the food court. Probably because he just destroyed any hope of convincing Otabek his public image as a pretty face with no brain just flew out the window.

 

“I said ‘that's really cool, tell me more’.” Otabek feels himself tensing as if he's expecting JJ to call him out on the lie even though he knows the other has no idea how to speak or even understand Kazakh in the slightest.

 

“Really?” JJ’s eyes light up like a small child who's just been given everything they've ever wanted. “I _love_ science...so I can get kind of ramble-y and way too technical so if you get bored or confused just say so and I'll stop cause I get caught up in in and kind of forget that not everyone cares about minor details of scientific theories.”

  


They lose track of time and talk about science for hours. Rather JJ talks and Otabek sits silently and listens. He wonders if anyone else has ever just sat there and listened when JJ is speaking. Probably not based on the way JJ keeps stopping mid-tangent to make sure Otabek seriously isn't bored.

 

He's not bored. He doesn't understand more than half of what Jean Jacques is going on about but he's definitely not bored. If anything he's never been quite so enthralled by another person the same way he is when  JJ is talking elevator physics or molecular gastronomy or string theory or black holes.

* * *

In Barcelona, Jean Jacques Leroy looks across the ballroom of the Grand Prix Banquet to where _his_ Otabek Altin is talking and laughing with a petite Russian teenager and JJ  _wishes._ He _wishes_ and he _wonders_ and for once science cannot help because what good does knowing _why_ do when you watching the person you love going through life like you'd never meant anything to them at all.

 

He sees the irony in this, of course, considering he's _engaged_ as far as anyone knows but he's not thinking rationally right now...he never could where Otabek was concerned.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. The Tramp-Stampening (or JJBek+Maple Vodka=Regret)

Despite what he desperately convinces people to believe, Jean-Jacqués is not in love with Isabella Yang. She's just a convenience. A perfectly timed publicity stunt in the form of his childhood best friend turned supermodel. A distraction with no sexual or romantic expectations or desires and the bedroom eyes to convince the world otherwise.

 

She is the delicate mask he hides his broken heart behind. Normal she is enough. Normally Otabek would not turn down dinner with JJ in favor of a date with an angry Russian teenager with pretty eyes and flaxen hair. Normally he does not have to see the one person he will never be able to get over is doing just fine without him right before it's his turn to skate.

 

So far, nothing about Barcelona has been normal. It's not really a surprise he bombs his short program. It should be even less of a surprise he hides in a hotel stairwell with a bottle of maple vodka after the fact trying to forget how embarrassingly awful he did.

 

* * *

 

At seventeen, Jean Jacques is still kind of a dork (and still loves science, which Otabek will never get tired of hearing about). He’s a hot dork, Otabek acknowledges, but a dork nonetheless. It’s probably for the best since Otabek likes JJ being a dork more than he likes his (or anyone’s) looks.

 

That said, JJ is most certainly not ugly. Otabek can see that, he has eyes after all, even if looks mean next to nothing to him he’s not going to complain about the fact that his boyfriend isn’t ugly… (Only he kind of does in a way, because if JJ isn’t making his phone overheat from a constant stream of selfies he’s making Otabek blush nervously from a sudden influx of drunken nudes that makes Otabek think ‘ _why? I’m demisexual please stop you beautiful disaster’)._

 

The main problem with dating this beautiful mess of a teenage Canadian that is JJ Leroy, is the fact that he’s in another country and the timezones are a real pain in the ass. It’s currently midnight in Almaty and JJ is a weekday behind at an even less appropriate hour but somehow he’s still warming Otabek’s hands with the furious onslaught of text messages being sent to him rapidfire. Otabek is briefly takes comfort in the thought his parents no longer pay for his phone...he manages that well enough with his recent winnings from small local competitions. Occasionally he sends back a quick “mm.” or “interesting.” or if he thinks JJ is doubting his focus on their conversation he’ll throw in a “Could you explain what you mean by Schrodinger's Cat?” just to prove he’s still fully paying attention. Otabek, however, is not really paying as much attention by midnight as he makes it seem. He’s drunk, actually, even though he’s about four years too young for it to be remotely legal, but if his _täte_ gave him a bottle of maple vodka who was he to let it go to waste? Besides, he’s talking to JJ maple anything seems like the appropriate thing to consume right now.

  


Otabek wakes up with an empty bottle of maple vodka in his hand, his cell phone in the other, and a throbbing headache.  He plans to check his last few texts and make sure he didn't say anything too embarrassing to JJ last night on their text date only to be distracted by the photo JJ had just sent him. Normally he didn't pay too much attention to the photos JJ sent him of his bare flesh but this one was pretty hard to ignore considering his boyfriend’s normally flawless skin now featured a tramp stamp. Not just a tramp stamp. No. An Ugly Ass Tattoo™.

Otabek scrolls back in a desperate hope this is JJ playing a cruel joke as doesn't actually expect Otabek to get a matching Ugly Ass Tattoo™ but fate seems to be a cruel mistress and Otabek ends up sending JJ a photo of his own tramp stamp several hours later because Otabek realizes that JJ is too young to get a tattoo without his parents’ consent and that makes Otabek feel a sense of guilt building inside his chest because he's been legal for two years in Kazakhstan and doesn't have to get permission to get inked and he'd be a dick if he didn't get the matching tattoo he promised his boyfriend.

 

It is the only time he sends JJ a photo of exposed flesh that isn't one of JJ own photos that he'd saved from a previous conversation.

 

* * *

 

Otabek finds Jean Jacques Leroy drunk in a hotel stairwell halfway into a bottle of maple vodka the night after their short programs at the Barcelona Grand Prix.  

 

“I can't believe I fucked up so bad….I'm such a loser…” Jean-Jacqués says by way of greeting as Otabek moves to sit next to him.

 

“You're not a loser. You messed up. So what? You're human.” His arm is acting off of instinct and muscle memory as it embrasses and then proceeds to pull Jean-Jacqués closer. ‘ _It's a comforting gesture... nothing more.’_

 

He's not sure who he's trying to fool with that thought but if it's himself it isn't working very well.

 

“Why are even here,” JJ whimpers into his shoulder. “You don't care about me.”

 

And okay where did that come from? Jean was just as responsible for their _mutual_ relationship hiatus as Otabek was if not more so. Especially if you take into account that Otabek was not the one who had moved on and decided to get engaged someone else in just over a year from them deciding to take a break. Clearly they had very different ideas of what   _break_ and _hiatus_ meant. Maybe Otabek is just being naïve but he's fairly sure both words have the implication that they're _temporary_...clearly Jean-Jacqués had seen things a bit differently.

 

“I'm not the one who's engaged to be married, Jean-Jacqués.”

 

“No you just date ti...tiny Russian teenagers.” JJ hiccups, looking at Otabek from deep blue eyes that were half closed in an attempt at keeping the tears from falling.

 

“I hardly know Yuri. You're too drunk to know what you're saying.” Otabek is trying his best not to cry himself because ‘ _how did we get to drunken arguments over who fell out of love first in a hotel stairwell from “I could never love another the way I love you” and getting couples tattoos at midnight on a whim?’_ and feels like his heart is breaking all over again. “I should help you get back to your room.”

 

They make their way up the first couple flights of stairs in an awkward enough silence before Jean-Jacqués asks what is probably the cruelest question Otabek has heard in awhile and that's saying a lot considering JJ had the audacity to invite him to dinner with his replacement the day before.

 

“Will you come to the wedding?” Otabek tries to convince himself not even JJ is this ruthless when sober. “Out of everyone I know you're the only one I actually want to come.”

 

“What about your Isabella?” He means it as a joke. A cruel one, full of bitterness and vindication he had not known he was capable of.

 

“Nah...I just need you.”

  


And _Oh..._ because Jean-Jacqués is engaged to Isabella but there might just be a part of him that's just as stuck in 2014 as Otabek is.

 


End file.
